Category: Books

“Interaction of greed and fear”

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Amazing how some things never change – I’m currently reading The Heart of Buddhist Meditation by Nyanaponika Thera first published in 1962 – and his words can’t be more accurate to describe our current situation:

“…the turbulence and suffering, that, alas, are generally equivalent with political history, affect increasingly larger sections of mankind, directly or indirectly… Tragic monotony of behaviour that prompts mankind to prepare again for a new bout of that raving madness called war … The same old mechanism is at work again: the interaction of greed and fear. Lust for power or desire to dominate are barely restrained by fear … Fear ..constantly poisons the atmosphere by creating a feeling of frustration which again will fan the fires of hate…”

Some food for thought…

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The Curiosities of Janice Lowry

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Last Friday I went to pick up a book from the library and found something extraordinary on display – the Curiosities of Janice Lowry. Until then was totally oblivious of this American artist. I’m still discovering about her life and work. Here wanted to note a few of her assemblages about time. 

A balanced time perspective and finding fulfilling work

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As Abraham Maslow famously noted, “I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.” – I study time perspective and I see traces of it almost everywhere. Here are some of my time perspectively infused notes while reading “How to find fulfilling work” by Roman Krznaric.

“We are not psychologically ready to deal with the expansion of choice in recent history”

While discussing his concept of ‘hardiness’ Salvatore Maddi notes: When choosing a future, or unfamiliar path, over repeating a past, something familiar and convenient, it is most consistent with our pursuit to elaborate life’s meaning (and finding a fulfilling work), but it also brings ontological anxiety – the fear of uncertainty and possible failure:

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Want to pursue your dream job – Denmark is a place to be

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Half the workforce in the western world is dissatisfied with their careers, but around a quarter of them are too afraid to make any change, trapped by their fears and lack of self-confidence – says Roman Krznaric in his book “How to find fulfilling work”.

I looked up the research he was citing and found out some curious facts about Denmark in regards job satisfaction (in 2007 though.. I wonder how is the current situation?):

When it comes to realising your workplace aspirations and making the most of your potential, it pays to be Danish. The Danes stood out in the research as overwhelmingly contented with their lot. Most respondents clearly felt they have found their niche:

  • Nearly 90% feel their current career matches their aspirations.
  • Two in three Danes believe their previous roles have suited them too – more than any other country.
  • Nearly three in four believe they are making the most of their strengths in their current role.

The Danes express satisfaction in spite of the fact that just a small number have pursued their dream career – less than one in ten. Nearly half would take a different path a second time around.

Clearly, more effective development of their employees by Danish organisations has some bearing on their levels of job satisfaction:

  • Nearly three quarters of Danes believe their employers know their strengths.
  • The Danes were most likely to confirm that employers are helping them realise their potential.

A research report by OPP July 2007

Time perspective across cultures and across time -research projects updates

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These days besides my activities linked to organizing our Network’s next meeting in Copenhagen this August: Celebrating Time, which will run from 15 to 19 August, I’m also working on finalizing two research projects that we started some time ago.

We are still working with Evgeny Osin on figuring out how to make sense out of the data we have from 33 countries using the ZTPI measure. As always with these type of convenience data sets, some things work and some other don’t. But we are making some progress and we hope to finalize the study during our open data lab session during the conference. So if you’re interested in learning how to deal with such data sets, or you have some good advice – you’re more than welcome to drop by. Check out the program of the conference to know when the session will be scheduled.

And as earlier announced in our Network updates – Aleksandra Kostic is editing a new book with current research in time perspective field. Britt Wiberg, me, Grazia Carelli and Marie Wiberg are working on a chapter for that book: Developing empirical profile of the balanced time perspective (BTP) and exploring its stability over time. It has been a very interesting and insightful project involving case studies and a lot of work! Aleksandra has set up a deadline for us – May 25th, so we are doing our best to meet it.

Urbanism and Creativity: Jane Jacobs

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I believe that lively cities where society can operate in an intense way make meetings out of which very fertile and ingenious decisions can come. But if people are isolated, fragmented, if one income class is set off from other income classes, the meeting simply does not occur. If different kinds of talents don’t come together, if different sorts of ideas don’t rub up against one another, if the necessary money never comes in juxtaposition with the necessary vision, the meeting doesn’t occur.

Happy 100th birthday, Jane Jacobs. via Brain Pickings / Maria Popova

Note to myself: get the book: Jane Jacobs: The Last Interview: and Other Conversations

Time Perspective Network — April updates

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What are we working on during April and some other news from the International Time Perspective Network

We have largely finalized the reviews of the submissions for our 3rd International Conference on Time Perspective: Celebrating Time to be held in August 2016 in Copenhagen.  – there are a few things still in progress due to the technical issues we have experienced. We hope that by now all who submitted a proposal have received the confirmation. We will really appreciate if the fees are paid by the end of April. Our budget is very modest and we rely on your contributions in order to proceed further.
We are in the process of developing the draft program. We aim to have it by the end of the month. In order to facilitate the process we invite everyone to register on Conferize platform – so that we can add everyone to the schedule: http://www.tpcph2016.com/schedule – you will receive an invitation. We decided to use this platform for a few reasons – it will allow for all the content of the event to stay long after the conference is over, which was not the case with the two previous events unfortunately. It will also ease the communication between the Network members, share the presentations and much more.
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We are still looking for strategic partners and sponsors for our event in Copenhagen – please give us a had with this. We believe that we have developed a truly unique concept for our next meeting and we just need some extra financial help in order to fully realize our vision. We are working hard on securing additional funding here in Copenhagen – we have already applied for numerous foundations (public and private), but the first answers will come only in the end of May – June.

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Reading Brassaï about Henry Miller

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While reading “Henry Miller: The Paris Years” by Brassaï I made a few discoveries about Miller, but also about Anais Nin and Brassaï him-self.

Henry Miller by Brassaï

Henry Miller by Brassaï

Revived my interest in the surrealist movement. Currently am looking into finding their essays about the automatic writing and such. But it is amazing what an impact the psychoanalysis had! The power of dreams that became legit in all the different forms of arts — literature, visual and performance arts. At same time it is not really measurable by the impact factor of scientific journals at all! Some of the ideas just go through and nowadays it is even hard to trace their origin and put a tag on it.

I discovered also that most of Miller’s novels are not as autobiographical as I thought earlier — it’s just he had a very strong power of imagination and sometimes couldn’t even distinguish between reality and fiction or dream. “…like the Surrealists and the Dadaists, Henry believed that the dreams provided fertile soil for writing, and that the writing did involve the struggle to bring to the surface that which was unknown, hidden, and unrealized” (p. 155). I’ll have to also look up his work “Into the Night Life” which he thought was like the Surrealists were doing.

So much like Brassaï “I live in what I see and hear” and Miller’s “treasures are buried deep within yourself, deep within the bowels of your inner self, and from them you can bring forth copper, or silver, or gold”. I am all about the details which have to match somehow. Scrupulous and pedantic… and so is my art, well, most of it.. Funny fact is both Brassaï and me were born on September 9th.

quote from Brassai

I have also discovered that some of Miller’s prose can actually be read as poetry and it makes a lot of sense. And I am curious to reread his books in English now.

I was hoping that the book will have more photos by Brassaï in it, his nocturnal Paris. But I ordered a few from the library to complement the reading with some visuals. A journey to Paris that doesn’t exist any more. Likewise Istanbul depicted by Orhan Pamuk and Ara Güler. Somehow these poetic city journeys are very interesting for me. Like many other people, I love to walk the city. To see where the feet will take me. What discoveries I will make on my journey.

I wish there was a similar book about Riga. There are so many different interesting corners in my hometown. Every time I go back there, I want to document every street of it. Every story that those streets have…

Books in my life

Human organisations..

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Human organisations are not at all like mechanisms. They are made up of living people who are driven by feelings and motives and relationships. Organisational charts show you the hierarchy, but they don’t capture how the organisation feels or how it really works. The fact is that human organisations and communities are not like the mechanisms: they are much more like organisms.

– Ken Robinson: The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything